Drug and Alcohol Addiction Treatment Centers In Georgia

Georgia, America's Peach State, is home to more than ten million people, with landscapes spanning from farmland, coastal beaches, to mountains. Georgia is better known for its cities rather than being known as a tourist and visitor attraction. Georgia's capital city of Atlanta and surrounding areas have experienced tremendous growth over the past decades, swelling the state's residency with a diverse population. Atlanta was home to slain civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and home to the Georgia Aquarium. Savannah is well known for its nineteenth-century architecture and is the home of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of America. Augusta's visitor population booms every year as it hosts the Masters Golf Tournament.

Drug Abuse in Georgia

Georgia's Prevention Project published that 2017 brought a near equal rate of opioid overdose deaths as fatal car accidents in the state, with a discrepancy of less than fifty. The report also indicates the highest rates of opioid overdose deaths occurred in rural counties with limited or no access to addiction treatment. Ranking eleventh in the country for opioid overdose death rates, Georgia has fifty-five counties that outpaced the national average for drug overdoses as of 2014, a significant increase from twenty-six counties exceeding the national average in 2003.

Despite the major concerns over lack of treatment access in rural Georgia counties, the state as a whole remains below the national average for opioid overdose death rates, according to The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Alcohol Abuse in Georgia

Despite rising and serious concerns over the opioid epidemic plaguing the entire country, alcohol continues to be the most commonly abused drug in Georgia. According to the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety, approximately 24 percent of all car-accident fatalities involved a driver with a BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) of 0.08 percent or higher. However, the percentage of Georgia residents who reported heavy alcohol use remains well below the national average, as does the overall rate of drug abuse in the state. Despite these statistics, reported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Health Barometer, a staggering 92.2 percent of Georgia residents ages twelve or older with alcohol dependence or abuse did not receive treatment from 2010 to 2014.

Addiction Treatment in Georgia

Currently, Georgia has more than 250 certified drug rehab facilities and services, located mostly in or around Atlanta, Macon, and Augusta.

Although addiction rehab, specifically opioid treatment, is sparsely available in rural Georgia counties, treatment is available in more densely populated areas with various levels of care, including: